Family Values
by LobsangLudd
Summary: AU When Edward was turned he left his pregnant wife Bella behind to protect her, and became unfeeling stone to protect himself. But when their son lays near death, the memories come rushing back and Edward can't stay away any longer. BxE, RxJ
1. In the Beginning

FAMILY VALUES

Chapter 1: In the Beginning There was Darkness

_2008, The Palmer House Hilton, Chicago  
_

EJ was healthy as a horse. Dr. Gerandy was always going on about how amazing his health was. His heart was steady, his breathing easy, he had a bowel movement every day without problem, and he didn't need the Viagra his doctor prescribed. Usually. Hell he even had all of his hair.

Well, most of his hair.

The point was it was his eighty ninth birthday and he was celebrating it in style. A glass of good bourbon, a cigar, and his girlfriend flitting about in next to nothing while she looked for the flavored massage oil so she could rub his feet.

Holly would be twenty three next week, a little old for him, but she was the only one to get by the family screening process so she was worth keeping around. She was no Lillie, his first wife, or even a Catherine, his second, but she was sweet and kind and she had a great smile.

The two of them had been touring the world for the past three months, Chicago was the last stop of the trip before they finally headed back home to Forks tomorrow morning. It had been a great vacation, Holly had appreciated getting out of 'that bumfuck rainy little excuse for a town' for a bit, and even EJ could admit that the house got a little crowded sometimes, but he was ready to return now. He missed his family. Beautiful Isabel, his little protégé, all business in her classy suits with her perfectly coiffed hair, and Quinn the artist, her antithesis playing his violin in ratty old jeans and a heavy metal band t-shirt. Nessie was even coming home for spring break soon with her perpetual smile. He hadn't seen her in ages but she had called yesterday and told him she was bringing that beau of hers to finally meet Gran. Mike would be there for spring break too with his new girlfriend, though honestly EJ didn't miss Mike as much, and as always there was...

"Puddin'?"

EJ shook off his reflections and smiled gently at Holly.

"Since it's our last day can we go out and get some real Chicago deep dish?"

EJ's smiled turned into a full blown grin. "Go make yourself decent"

Holly gave a whoop as she hopped up and ran into the bedroom to change. EJ chuckled and hoisted himself out of his chair to go call his chauffeur to get the car ready.

After hanging up the phone EJ started across the room to freshen his drink. Halfway there the left side of his body went completely numb. Holly burst into the room at the sound of the glass breaking. She started to panic when she saw EJ slump to the floor.

His last thought before he slipped into darkness was 'God has that woman's voice always been so shrill?' but just before that he thought how ironic it was that he was going to die unexpectedly in the same hotel where he was unexpectedly conceived.

_2008, Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix  
_

"Final Boarding Call, flight 1632 to Seattle Washington."

"Damnit Nes, that's us, you've been looking through the books for over an hour. That is our flight we have to go."

Jake watched in exasperation as his girlfriend gave the shelf of smutty romance novels one last perusal before picking up _The Very Virile Viking_, the first book she had looked at when they walked into the store. She went to pay while Jacob collected their luggage and started heading toward the gate.

Twenty minutes later the plane was taxing down the runway and Jake, relieved of the 'we might miss our plane' stress was free to stress about other things like meeting Nessie's Gran. Jacob had lived less than 15 minutes away from Nessie his whole life. They had been friends since they were four and significant others since they were fifteen but he had never even glimpsed the beloved and mysterious Gran who had raised Nessie and two of her cousins practically from birth.

He had good reason to be nervous. The Masens' were notoriously devoted to their reclusive Gran. Isabel, Nessie's oldest cousin, had come home from Dartmouth a few years ago with a fiance she was absolutely gaga about, he had stayed at the mansion for a little over a week before he left in a huff and Isabel never spoke of him again. When Jake's father Billy asked her what had happened she had simply shrugged and said "Gran didn't approve" not bitter or annoyed, just accepting that Gran was the last word on these things and she couldn't argue.

Jake smiled over at Nessie, who had gotten five pages into the book she had to have to read on the plane and then had fallen asleep. He was so wild about her it wasn't really natural. Ever since he was fifteen he was obsessed with just being in her glorious presence. He didn't know what he would do if a few weeks from now someone asked Ness 'hey what happened to that Jake guy I thought he was surgically grafted to your hip' and she replied 'Oh that, Gran didn't approve' in the same indifferent voice as her sister.

Nessie mumbled something about comely wenches and shifted so her head rested on Jake's shoulder. He smiled and dropped a kiss on it, a little envious of her relaxed state of mind. Usually it was Jake who could fall asleep any time, anywhere, but today he was too worked up over the thought of losing her. Though to be fair he really had no reason to think Gran wouldn't approve. Ness wasn't nervous at all so that was something, and the two of them had been dating since high school so Gran had plenty of time to make her displeasure known. Besides he was completely devoted to his beautiful brown-eyed girlfriend, and he had read in a tabloid somewhere that Isabel's ex-fiance cheated on whatever heiress he ended up marrying. Calmed considerably he leaned his head onto Nessie's and tried to get some sleep himself, but after tossing and turning a bit he gave up. He twiddled his thumbs, listened to the crappy airplane music on the crappy airline headphones, and contemplated waking Renesmee up. He gave her a fairly hard 'accidental' nudge but all it did was cause her book to slide off her lap and half fall into the no-man's land between the seats. He gingerly picked it up, holding it at arms length as if it was going to bite him and looked at the cover. He scoffed at the fur loincloth wearing six-pack sporting blond on the cover staring back at him with penetrating eyes. On a whim he opened to the first page.

When Nessie woke up four hours later it was to find Jacob completely absorbed. Magnus Ericsson had whisked the comely Lady Asilane off in his long boat, but the lady's promised suitor was hot on their trail.

_1917, Palmer House Hotel, Chicago  
_

Isabella nervously pulled on her gloves as her best friend Angela fastened the single string of pearls around her neck. She did not want to do this.

When she had returned home after her final year of boarding school she had been looking forward to spending time in Forks away from the overcrowded hustle, but her mother, a Parisian socialite to the core, was hard set on her being _the _debutante and had whisked her away for three months of shopping in New York before arriving in Chicago just in time for the start of the social season.

Isabella knew her mother's hopes were in vain with the likes of "The Big Four" as they called themselves debuting the same year. She would be lucky to make it through her premiere ball without accidentally killing one of her dance partners.

Besides, she looked absolutely ghastly.

The white satin dress was beautifully cut and fit her like a dream, but set against her pale skin made her look like some sort of colorless spirit. The pearl accessories did little to relieve the monotony of her appearance, and the fashionable low heels her mother insisted that she wear made it hard for her to walk even without her signature clumsiness.

"They're almost ready for us, we should head down." Angela pinched Isabella's cheeks for her and opened the door.

Isabella smiled up at Angela as she carefully pushed herself away from the mirrored dressing table. If she absolutely had to endure this evening at least she had Angela. Angela was the one bright spot of the last nine years. Her first real friend since her first day at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland.

The two girls descended the stairs and joined the growing line of debutantes waiting to enter the grand ballroom and be introduced.

Bella tried to hide her nervousness as she looked at the excited girls around her. She was envious of them all, Angela's quiet poise, Margot's boisterous sense of humor and daring (she had actually _bobbed her hair!_), and Edith's goddess like good looks. Next to them Isabella felt dowdy and churlish.

Angela's father took her arm and led his daughter down the center aisle to be presented to society and Isabella felt a stab of envy at her smooth elegance. She glided effortlessly down the aisle stepped away from her father and sank into a perfect, low curtsy, before seamlessly rising and taking the arm of her escort for the evening, Benjamin Cummings, allowing him to lead her to their table.

Isabella was next and so with no little amount of trepidation took her father's offered arm and concentrated very hard on her foot placement as she uneasily traveled down the center of the room, all too conscious of the many eyes that were on her.

"Presenting Isabella Swan, daughter of Charles Swan and Renée Swan née Beauchamp."

Isabella took a deep breath as her father released her arm and took one last step forward to make her much practiced curtsy. She managed it with surprising grace, but heady with success turned a little too fast and tripped on the hem of her gown. Trying to steady herself she veered offstage and nearly plummeted into the orchestra pit, the violinist continuing to play as he leaned away. Just as she braced herself for the inevitable face full of carpet strong hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her up, setting her gently on her feet before offering her an arm. She looked up gratefully expecting the dour face of Edgar Nevitz, her grudging escort, as she was led away from the presentation area but she gasped and her step faltered when instead of her Edgar's familiar blue eyes she looked into the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen laughingly admiring her.


	2. Under Better Circumstances

FAMILY VALUES

Chapter 2: Under Better Circumstances We Might Have Been Friends

That last chapter was a sort of teaser setting up the three main story lines. From here on out I am going to try to make more significant chapters focusing on one of the story lines with a small teaser for the next chapter at the end. I am trying to make my chapters longer too, let me know if it's a little rushed. Stay tuned to the end of the story where I have posted a Masen Family tree

* * *

_2008, Northwest Memorial Hospital, Chicago_

"_Paging Dr. Cullen, Dr. Cullen to the ICU"_

Edward sighed as he put a few last marks on Mrs. Whitman's chart and slid it back into its little box. His shift was supposed to have been over a few hours ago, but the chief had asked him to handle a VIP that had just come in.

Usually Edward didn't mind extra shifts. It wasn't like he was tired and he had been avoiding the house since the Denali clan had come to stay with them; Tanya's kicked puppy look and dirty thoughts were getting on his nerves. Today had been a particularly bad day though, Mr. McFealy's children were being especially difficult, Dr. Johnson was still pestering him about going on a blind date with his undoubtedly shovel-faced sister, and Nurse Cope had managed to cop a feel while he was distracted which had caused him to let out a very unmanly squeak that had been heard by half the residents he had been supervising at the time. The last thing he wanted to do was babysit some billionaire who had keeled over in his hotel room, probably with some bimbo in spiting distance. Edward was the best geriatrician on staff though and the board always wanted to make a good impression on people with deep pockets. With a small grumble he headed toward the ICU to get a look at the old geezer, taking the long way to avoid walking through the Dialysis unit, he hadn't eaten in a while.

Edward was not as immune to the fragrant banquet laid out before him constantly as Carlisle was, but he found it wasn't very difficult to deny himself anyway. Not when every woman was Bella, every man his unmet son, every child a baby they had never had the chance to have. Even so, he had chosen to specialize in geriatrics initially on the off chance that he slipped up and offed someone.

Now though he couldn't imagine treating anyone else. Somehow he found easing the road to death to be much more therapeutic than fighting it. The others called him Iceman because he preferred taking the most dire hospice cases and never shed a tear over a lost patient. Death wasn't a horrifying unknown to him, it was a much yearned for release. If he wasn't determined to keep his admittedly gray soul as clean as possible on the off chance that he would be able to some day sneak into heaven and see Bella for even a moment before they realized he was there and threw him out, he would have topped himself long ago.

Edward pushed through the door in the ICU and walked up to the nurses station. He didn't even bother looking at the buxom nurse who handed him the chart, her hand lingering on his while she tried to push her chest out for full advantage, even his cold, arrogant reputation wasn't enough to deter some people.

His eyes scanned disinterestedly over the details on the chart. Caucasian male, 89 years of age, collapsed into unconsciousness at 7:15 this evening, probable stroke. Edward's eyes rushed through the rest of the document before they happened to glance back at the top and he saw Mr. Deep-Pocket's name. He froze statue still.

Edward Masen III.

His son was lying in that room separated from him only by a thin door. His son whom he had only ever seen once and from afar. The only tangible proof of his and Bella's doomed love. He at once desperately wanted to run away never to return to Chicago, and desperately needed to be in that room and see his child with his own eyes.

God he hadn't even really thought the boy was still alive. He avoided all business news and celebrity gossip like the plague and his family knew better than to think of Bella or Edward Jr. in his presence.

Edward hurried to the room in question not at super speed but fast enough to raise a few eyebrows. Taking a deep breath he slowly inched the door open.

He looked so tiny.

EJ was a big man, at 6'3" he would have towered over his diminutive 5'11" father. Edward wondered briefly where EJ had gotten it from, certainly not teeny tiny Bella. Here in the hospital bed though he looked small and frail. Thin like you could snap his wrists with minimal pressure. At once Edward was transported back to another time, when EJ was a 7 year old boy, tall and slender in a way that suggested a gangly adolescence was on the horizon, wearing a sombre black suit and looking very much the lost waif as they slid his mother's coffin into it's cubby, next to the sealed tomb that should have housed Edward's own body.

Edward had wanted so badly to go and comfort the boy he didn't know at all, but by then it was much too late for him to try and resume his old life. EJ would not recognize him but his sister and cousins would scream and try to escape. So Edward had contented himself by watching the open door of the mausoleum from across the cemetery and had dealt with his grief afterwards by hunting human monsters.

He spent ten years on the human diet, and every murderer and rapist he killed he first asked them about Bella, scanning their minds for the image he both longed for and dreaded of Bella in her last moments before some disgusting excuse for a mortal who was too unworthy to even look at her let alone touch her, had ended her life.

He never found the man who had taken his Bella away, or if he did the man had killed so many he didn't remember her. After a particularly brutal feeding though, when he went back to the grimy unfurnished apartment where he spent his days pushing the limits of his special ability searching for his next meal, he washed the blood of his last victim off in the chipped sink and chanced to look up into the filthy broken mirror. Into his blood red eyes. He realized then that if Bella were to walk in the door at that moment she would not see him as her chivalrous knight in shining armor moving heaven and earth to avenge her death, but as the terrifying devil that he was.

He had left that evening in search of Carlisle, committed to making himself worthy of Bella once again in case they met in the afterlife.

Edward broke out of his reverie when he heard mumbling from the bed. A good sign, if he was sleep talking he wasn't unconscious, just sleeping. Edward hesitantly reached out his hand and after a moment of indecision carefully brushed a stray hair off EJ's sweaty forehead.

"Mother?" The hope in his voice broke Edwards stony heart. Here lying in this bed was the one person in the world who understood what he felt for Bella, if not in exactly the same way. The only one in the world who missed her as much as he did.

"Grandpa?"

Edward turned with a scowl towards the door but it instantly fell away when he saw her, standing in the door looking so much like Bella.

"Oh hello, I'm Isabel Masen, EJ is my grandfather."

Edward smiled and took the offered hand. Isabel had Bella's eyes and mouth, but he could see hints of himself in her too. Her manner was the opposite of what Bella's had been as she stood their cool and confident and gave him the once over with a calculating look, as if she was trying to figure something out but she just couldn't place it. Her mind was hard to read. Not invisible but foggy, like looking at something through a shower door. He could glimpse feelings and indistinct pictures but couldn't really read full ideas. Interesting.

"Dr. Cullen" Edward introduced himself with a genuine smile as he released her hand "I have been assigned to your grandfather's case."

"I'll let you examine him then, I have a few business things to tie up so I will leave it to you for a few hours. If you need any information or releases signed the Chief has my number." Her tone was crisp but Edward could feel the worry coming off of her in waves. She genuinely cared for her grandfather a great deal.

Edward smiled again as she turned to leave, he was happy to meet her and wanted to learn about her, but right now he was more anxious to spend a little time with his son.

_2008, The Masens' House, Forks_

Jake pulled up to the palatial house and turned off the engine as Nessie ran out to hug her cousin Mike who was standing on the porch with a pretty enough but overly made-up blonde.

"Have you been in to see her yet?" Mike smiled at Nessie's exuberance and shook his head.

"No, she wanted to wait for you and get all the interviews out of the way at once." With that he took the blonde's hand and led her inside.

"Interview?" Renesmee laughed at Jake's shaky voice and took his arm, leading him inside the massive ebony doors and onward down the hall.

"It's nothing to worry about, just Gran's self appointed sentry. You have to get her approval before you meet Gran, but there is nothing to worry about, she is going to LOVE you. I bet you two will end up as best friends."

Jake swallowed as Ness pulled him into a surprisingly non-threatening looking parlor just as Mike finished introducing his Fiancée Jessica and looked up to see possibly the most devastatingly beautiful woman that ever existed. She smiled as she held his hand out to him but crinkled her nose slightly when he came within shaking distance as if he smelled foul. Jake made a mental note to go easier on the aftershave. He was enthralled as he raised his hand up to clasp hers but the second her cool dry fingers touched his skin he felt unaccountably unsettled.

"This is my boyfriend Jake, Jake, this is Bella."

* * *

DUM DUM DUM

here is the promised family tree to help you keep track, I tried to make it as easy to read as possible, names in parentheses are the nicknames they go by and Belle doesn't have a death year because she was stillborn.

!-- page size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in P margin-bottom: 0.08in --

...Edward Anthony Masen 1895 Elizabeth Marie Swinton

...b. 1869 d. 1919...I...b.1877 d.1918

...I

...I..ooooooooooooo.I

...Benjamin Cummings 1923 Angela...ooooooooooo..Edward II 1917 Isabella Swan

...b.1897 d.1953...I..b.1900 d.1971..oooo..b.1901 d.1918 .o..I..o.b. 1900 d.1927

...I.ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..I

.ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..Lillie....1941...oooooooooooooooooooooEdward III (EJ) 1959 Catherine Nevitz

..ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.b.1924 d.1942..oooooo.I.ooooooooo..b.1918.ooooooo..I...b.1940 d.2001

..oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.I..ooooooooooooooooooooooo.I

..ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.Belle.ooooooooooooooooooooo..I

.ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..1942..ooooooooooooooooooooo.I

...oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...I

..oooooooooooooooo.I..ooooooooooooooooooooooo.I..oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.I

Marion Davis 1981 Edward IV (Anthony)..ooooooo.Millicent.1984 Orville Newton.ooooooooooo..Anna

b.1958d.1986.I...b.1960d.1986...ooooooo..ooo...b.1962...I...b.1962 d.2003..ooooooooooo.b.1975

oooooooooo...I..oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.Iooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...I

..ooooooooo...I...oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.I..ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.I

.ooo..I.oooooooooo..I..ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.I.ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..I

..ooIsabel...ooooEdward V (Quinn)..oooooooooooooooo.Michael...oooooooooooooooooooooRenesme

...b.1982.ooooo..b.1985...oooooooooooooooooooooooob.1985..oooooooooooooooooooooo.b.1990

:-)

This is my first story in a long time and my first story ever of this kind or in the Twilight universe. Review and let me know how I'm doing! Or review and don't let me know but tell me how much you love puppies keeping in mind that I will mentally replace the word 'puppies' with 'this awesome story' and 'numskull stinky mongrels' with 'GREATEST THING EVER'


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